Back to Lazydays

We made the decision to so back to Lazydays in Tampa Florida to get our paint issues taken care of. We called the warranty department at the factory to see if they would approve our taking it to Lazydays to have these problems fixed. They were reluctant to have it done here in Florida, they wanted us to bring it back to Elkhart Indiana and let their painter try, for the third time, to get it correct. We explained that we were not planning to come back up there again.

We held out and finely convinced them to let Lazydays do the paint, so that it would be done right. Lazydays paint department started working on it today, and we expect to be here most of next week. We will be able to stay in the coach at night while they are doing all of the preparations for the paint, then we will have to be out of the coach one night, while it is in the paint booth.

Our plan was to go back to Orlando for 2 weeks before we left Florida, but that will have to be only 1 week. We have learned that you have to be flexible, because things can come up at any time to change your plans. We will keep you all informed of our travels.

Tampa RV Show, Lazydays, MacDill AFB and SEA FMCA Rally

We left Orlando and Mickey Mouse behind and headed for Tampa Florida area to attend the Tampa RV Show at the fairgrounds. We were meeting the group from Mandalay Travel Club to caravan in so we could all park together. We had a good time at this RV show, looked at some of the new motor homes and checked out their floor plans. We visited all the vendor booths to see if there were any new gadgets we needed, and of course we found a few things that we just couldn't live without, Ha Ha !!

We spent some time with some of the other Mandalay owners and went out to dinner a couple of times and had a lot of fun. It is always great to see old friends and catch up on what is going on with them, where they have been, and where they are going next.

While we were at this rally, our water pump stopped working again (for the 7th time) and we were able to get an appointment at Lazydays in Tampa, a few miles away from the rally. We had the pump replaced and some rain leaks taken care of in their service department. Lazydays is a wonderful place to visit and an even better place to get repair work done. Check out these pictures, a lot better than any of the other places we've gone for service.

As you can see from the pictures, their waiting area is great, starbucks coffee all day and they have free breakfast and lunch in there dining area while you are waiting. They have a huge service department with dozens of service bays. While they are working on it, you can stay in your coach, with water, electric, and sewer right there in the bay. The employees here are all so nice and treat you like you are special. We spent a week here, got the work done, then we headed about 30 miles south of Tampa to MacDill AFB to spend a week.

MacDill has a great FamCamp, it sets right on the Tampa Bay, has a private beach, and the base is surrounded by water on 3 sides. A beautiful base, and we were so impressed with the campground, they have several hundred sites, many are seasonal for 2 or 3 months, and quite a few for temporary 14 days visitors. Most of them are full hookup, some partial, and the camp has many dry camping sites. We would love to come here again, and stay longer, but, next year (Oct to Feb) is full for seasonal sites and there is already a waiting list. This is a high demand area, as well as all of Florida.

We left MacDill and headed for another rally in Brooksville Florida, (just North of Tampa) the South East Area FMCA Rally. We were all parked on the runway at the Hernando County Airport, I think about 1500 motor homes. They shut down a couple of runways for this event. Wow, it seems so funny to be sitting here on the runway. It must look really strange to the pilots as they approach the other runways to land.

The FMCA Rally was fun, as always, a nice group of people, lots of good entertainment each night too. Coffee and donuts each morning, and a lot of food concessions in case we get hungry. Many vendor booths to check out, and a lot of coach displays, both new and used ones. The military was doing a lot of practice here at this airport while we were here, helicopters moving jeeps, and paratroopers jumping out of airplanes, so we have had a little air show entertainment while we were here too.